The Most Wonderful Time of the Year
by Ijemanja
Summary: Izzie loves Christmas.


Notes: Written for fliz0ntoast, in an LJ ficathon.

Summary: Izzie loves Christmas.

THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR

by Ijemanja

* * *

She wakes up and it's Christmas.

Izzie loves Christmas, and she gets out of bed and pulls on her robe with a big smile on her face. She creeps downstairs because the others won't be up for another hour and she has to make breakfast.

Chocolate chip first - she'll make lemon and poppyseed next but George likes sweet things in the morning. She reaches for the bag and drops a couple in her mouth because so does she, actually.

This is not hate-filled rage-baking, she thinks as she grabs another armful of ingredients from the cupboard. Nor is it panicky, stressed-out avoidance-baking. No, this is Christmas-morning-in-her-slippers-with-chocolate-baking; the oven is warming up the whole kitchen and everything smells homey and the early morning quiet is just perfect as she leans her elbows on the counter and licks the wooden spoon.

x

'Meredith!' Izzie jumps on the bed and bounces a few times. 'Wake up, it's Christmas!'

'What are you, five years old?' Meredith complains, her arms flung over her face.

'Supportive!' George hisses from where he's propped up in the doorway.

Meredith lowers her arms and gives Izzie a big fake smile.

'Yay,' she says, 'Christmas.'

'Yay!' Izzie echoes, bouncing once more for good measure.

'Yay,' George says around a huge yawn. 'I love Christmas.'

He doesn't, really. But Izzie doesn't care because she loves it enough for all three of them.

x

She laughs as the dog - poor thing, she thinks, they really need to decide on a name - wriggles happily and then bounds through a pile of crumpled wrapping paper, chasing after the shiny new ball Izzie just tossed across the room.

George pulls his legs out of the way just in time to avoid being trampled by four enthusiastic paws.

'You're in a really good mood,' he says, and he sounds just a bit too surprised about it.

'I get to be happy today,' she tells him. She watches him recoil a little at her tone.

And then watches Meredith lean over and whack him across the shoulder.

She reaches for another doggy treat.

x

It's time to go and Meredith holds the door open while George grabs another muffin from the basket Izzie's carrying. It hangs out of his mouth while he struggles to get his coat on and Meredith locks the door and they make their way to the car.

'Good muffins,' he says once his mouth is free.

Meredith smiles at her in the rear-view mirror.

'Izzie's the queen of baked goods.'

She's been called worse.

She smiles as she leans her head against the window, even as she stifles a yawn.

Traffic is light, and most people, she thinks, are at home with their families. Then there are some people at mass, and some people who don't observe this particular holiday at all and they're just enjoying the day off. But she and her friends are going to work and it's not as if they're doing this because none of them have anything better to do - although they don't, really - but because they don't want to be anywhere else.

There are worse things she could be doing than heading in to work with her two closest friends. There are worse ways to spend the holidays than doing a job she loves.

So she's smiling, and she's happy, and she feels she's entitled to it.

And besides, they're first year interns and everything else comes second.

Which doesn't mean she can't turn the house into Martha Stewart's wet dream. It's just that none of them will be around to enjoy it much, that's all.

x

'You the doctor?'

She smiles as the man jumps to his feet.

'I'm Dr Stevens, I'll be assisting with your wife's case.'

'My sister, not my wife. It doesn't say that on the chart?'

'Shut up, Charlie,' the young woman lying in the bed speaks up. 'Don't mind him, he hates doctors.'

'Do not. This one looks all right, anyway. It's good that you're, you know, female,' he confides in Izzie, his tall, hulking figure looming over her.

She looks up from palpating her patient's stomach, and wonders how she's supposed to respond to that. Luckily, her patient seems more than happy to do that for her.

'Shut up, Charlie!'

'It wouldn't be right, Josie - a strange man poking at your privates -'

'It's my stomach. And they're doctors, anyway, they look at people all day!'

'You're in very good hands,' Izzie interrupts, when the siblings would have continued. 'An appendectomy is one of the most common surgeries we perform.'

She keeps a smile fixed firmly on her face until she finishes up and leaves the room. She's moving off down the corridor, shaking her head in amusement, when her beeper goes off. She looks down at it and then she starts running.

x

She's walking very fast by the time she gets to the locker room. She leans against the nearest wall, bends over, her hands on her knees, and tries to steady her breathing.

Only a few seconds pass before the door opens and someone comes in.

'Are you...' There's a sigh. Izzie doesn't look up. 'Okay?' Cristina finishes cautiously.

'Uh-huh,' she manages to reply.

'And by that, you mean 'hell no', right?'

This time she just nods briskly at the floor, her lips pressed tightly together.

Because whatever Christmas Means to Izzie, it's not blood-infused puke in her hair. In fact, it's a good thing she's never been squeamish a day in her life, otherwise between the smell and the slimy glob of don't-think-about-it sliding down her neck and under her collar, her shoes might be about to get their second dose of vomit in twenty minutes.

She straightens up and brushes past Cristina as she heads for the showers.

He died, too. The man, whoever he was, died.

The day's only just started.

x

She looks up to see Alex turn and head in another direction at the sight of her.

He's been skulking around the place all day. She makes a face at his retreating back.

'Stevens.'

Dr Shepherd collects her as she moves with a purpose down the hall.

'Placenta-previa, premature labour at thirty-five weeks. Want in?'

She hasn't forgiven this woman, but she keeps walking anyway because yes, she does. She still does.

x

'He walked out on me a couple of months ago,' Fiona Sheldon says, speaking fast as Izzie adjusts the monitor across her belly.

She's nervous, and Izzie doesn't blame her.

'Left a note about a job in Orlando, but not even a number or anything and I mean - why did he even bother, you know? Is that going to help me answer my kid's questions?' She sighs. 'Though she stopped asking a while ago. My daughter, that is - she's with my sister right now. And then there's this one.'

A hand goes to rest on her stomach and she looks Izzie straight in the eye and says: 'This is going to be bad, isn't it?'

Izzie says all the right things - Addison Shepherd is one of the best in the country, they're doing everything possible, her chances are good.

And she leaves the room fuming because she knows that the chances are good, but not that good - that the vitals of either mother or baby could plummet at any time, that the woman could lose her uterus, her baby. She might lose her life, and leave a family devastated, and somewhere there's a man who doesn't give a shit.

And she knows, also, that this is what Addison means by being too involved.

'Hey,' George says, coming to stand next to her as she waits for an elevator. 'So, you'll probably get to scrub in on another of Dr Shepherd's surgeries, today - Merry Christmas, huh?'

'Shut up, George,' she says, and stalks off to take the stairs.

x

'Well I can't go,' Cristina is saying as they leave the coffee cart behind.

'He invited you.'

'To an 'informal gathering' with some of his friends. His friends are all doctors.'

'You're a doctor.'

'I'm an intern. And I'll be the only one there.'

'You could make some connections - you like doing that.'

'I'll be the only one there, and they'll all _know why that is_.'

'At least you've got someone to kiss at midnight.'

'Sure, I'll be the slutty, ladder-climbing intern sleeping with her boss, but at least I'm not desperate and dateless.'

Izzie is done being understanding.

'Remember when Meredith was the slutty ladder-climbing intern sleeping with her boss?'

'Remember when you made Tiny Tim look like the spawn of satan? That was, what, fifteen minutes ago?'

They stare at each other for a moment.

'I have a thousand charts to fill out,' Izzie declares.

'I've got to stitch up a guy who ran his hand through an electric can-opener on a dare,' Cristina counters.

They turn and head off in opposite directions.

x

Izzie is on chart number three hundred and twelve when Meredith collapses in the next chair over.

She doesn't say anything, so Izzie does. 'What are the odds of me finding a boyfriend - a nice, normal, non-cheating-asshole boyfriend - by New Year's Eve?'

Meredith shrugs. 'Slightly higher than mine,' she says.

'So what if we don't have dates?' George throws in. He leans over the counter and toys with the handle of the muffin basket.

It's almost empty now. Izzie gives it a baleful glare, regretting ever getting up hours early just to make stupid Christmas baked goods.

Most people didn't even say thank you.

'I mean,' George continues, 'It's not like we have big plans. Do we?'

Izzie shrugs at him, and beside her Meredith does the same.

'George will kiss you, Meredith,' Izzie says then, just to see the deer-in-headlights panic in his eyes.

'What?' he splutters. 'No! Well not -'

Meredith just laughs. 'And I'll kiss you,' she says to Izzie.

'And it'll be one big incestuous party,' Izzie finishes with mock glee.

'Just because we live together, doesn't make it like incest,' George mutters. 'Not even remotely.'

Izzie smirks. 'George still doesn't see us as sisters - isn't that sad?'

'Izzie's lost the Christmas spirit - I thinks _that's_ sad,' George snipes back.

Alex saunters up then, as if he hasn't been avoiding her for days, and casually reaches towards the remaining muffins.

'Don't even think about it,' Izzie says without so much as sparing him a glance. She grabs the basket suddenly and offers it to Dr Bailey, who is heading towards them.

Bailey takes a muffin and looks around. 'Where's Yang?' she demands, absently breaking off a small chunk and popping it in her mouth.

'Here,' Cristina jogs up.

'Had a complaint - patient says an intern was rude to him?'

Cristina blinks and says nothing for a moment, and Izzie thinks she must be wondering which of the many people she's seen today was the most likely to complain.

'I... the guy with the shredded hand? I just said he might consider _not_ doing it, the next time someone dares him to do something incredibly stupid. It wasn't an insult,' she says defensively, 'It was medical advice.'

Bailey considers that for a moment, takes another bite, then nods. 'Fair enough.'

She turns and begins signing off on the charts - the ones Izzie has finished, anyway - glancing quickly over each.

'What,' she says, not looking up, her tone deceptively even, 'Are you all doing standing around here?'

Alex is already backing away, and is the first to respond.

'Covering the floor,' he says, just before ducking through the nearest doorway.

One of the charts from Izzie's slowly diminishing pile has appeared in Meredith's hands, and they are both hunched over, writing furiously. Bailey's eye travels over the two of them, and lands on George and Cristina.

'Yang, back down in the pit. George -'

Suddenly, there is a yell and a loud crash from down the corridor.

Izzie jumps to her feet in time to see Alex come flying back out of the room he just entered. He is closely followed by a large, angry person who grabs him by the shirt and shoves him into the opposite wall.

'What were you doing to my sister?' Charlie bellows.

'Nothing!' comes Alex's high-pitched, panicked reply.

Bailey is already yelling, waddling into the fray. 'Hey, hey! What is going on?'

Izzie stares incredulously at the scene unfolding.

'Look,' she says, her voice filled with wonder. 'It's the magic of Christmas.'

'And then the Grinch's heart grew three times its size!' Cristina says with a smirk. She cocks her head to one side and adds: 'Wow, I wouldn't have thought even Alex would stoop to hiding behind a pregnant woman for protection.'

She takes a muffin and munches on it as she watches.

Meredith and George are edging down the corridor to get a better view, laughing all the while.

And Izzie just smiles. She really loves Christmas.

end


End file.
